What if a bakery wasn’t just about desserts—but about creating unforgettable experiences?
In this episode of Knoodle Founders Hour, host Rosaria Cain sits down with Danielle O’Day, founder of Sweet Dee’s Bakeshop, to explore how creativity, storytelling, and relentless execution turned a passion for baking into a thriving, multi-dimensional brand.
Danielle isn’t just a pastry chef—she’s a creator in every sense of the word. From cactus-shaped macarons flavored with roasted corn and mesquite honey to interactive desserts you can paint or dip, her work blends art, flavor, and emotion into something customers don’t just eat—they remember.
Sweet Dee’s Bakeshop Founder Danielle O’Day
In this conversation, Danielle shares how her process starts not in the kitchen, but in a journal—where ideas evolve into fully immersive experiences, seasonal pop-ups, and completely original creations that keep customers coming back.
You’ll hear:
- How Danielle transforms creativity into a repeatable business system
- Why her goal is to create a full sensory experience—not just a dessert
- The power of “whimsy” and originality in standing out in a crowded market
- How interactive and customized desserts create emotional connections with customers
- The story behind building Sweet Dee’s during one of the most pivotal moments in her life
- Why mastering gluten-free, vegan, and inclusive baking became a competitive advantage
- What it really takes to be a founder—from mindset and discipline to managing chaos and creativity
Danielle also opens up about the realities of entrepreneurship—early mornings, long days, and the mental discipline required to turn vision into execution—while staying grounded in purpose and creativity.
Her superpower?
“I can create my way into anything—and out of anything.”
If you’re a founder, creative, or anyone trying to turn passion into a business, this episode is a masterclass in building something people don’t just buy—but feel.
Listen now and discover how creativity, intention, and a little bit of whimsy can turn a simple idea into an unforgettable brand.
Full Transcript
Rosaria Cain 00:00
Good morning. Everyone. Good morning, Danielle.
Danielle O’Day 00:02
Good morning.
Rosaria Cain 00:03
Thank you for coming by and welcome.
Danielle O’Day 00:05
Thank you for having me today.
Rosaria Cain 00:06
So what’s cooking at Sweet Dee’s,
Danielle O’Day 00:10
Everything!
Rosaria Cain 00:11
Tell me.
Danielle O’Day 00:12
Everything fun, everything whimsical, everything creative. It’s a whole experience.
Rosaria Cain 00:17
Well, tell me about art, creativity and baking and how they are woven together in your bake shop.
Danielle O’Day 00:23
I adore this question. Ever since I was a little girl, I was sitting in my own head with creativity, and I had journals on journals and journals. I navigated through several career choices, but it led me to baking and where we are today. And I think my favorite aspect of that is flavors, creativity and the art of the pastry itself is so sensory. You’re lighting up visual, you’re lighting up emotional, and most importantly, taste. So you get an entire experience when you come into sweeties and you have that one pastry.
Rosaria Cain 01:03
I would agree. I was there yesterday and undercover, so you didn’t see me. I saw you in the back, though I did. I saw you
Danielle O’Day 01:11
Running around.
Rosaria Cain 01:12
I saw you running around, and you have various cactuses in your display case, cactus pastry.
Danielle O’Day 01:22
Oh, the macarons.
Rosaria Cain 01:23
Is that what they are? They looked amazing. I didn’t know what they were.
Danielle O’Day 01:26
Yes, the French macarons,
Rosaria Cain 01:27
But I’ve never seen, I’ve never seen a macaron that was in the shape of a cactus?
Danielle O’Day 01:34
You have to put a little southwestern—
Rosaria Cain 01:36
There was some baseball, right?
Danielle O’Day 01:38
Yes! So at Sweet teas. We really like to go with the flow and the air of what’s going on. We’re in the southwest. There’s going to be a cactus macaron. Is it flavored with roasted corn and mesquite honey? Also, yes.
Rosaria Cain 01:52
Really?
Danielle O’Day 01:52
Sourced with natural corn and the honey. And then it’s spring training season. So we have to have some fun treats. There are so many people that come in from out of town to go see all of these spring training games that I thought it would be fun to incorporate that interactive nature to their experience, because we are a tourist destination in itself.
Rosaria Cain 02:12
So it’s always different when someone comes into Sweet Dee’s. So it depends on time of year and what’s happening in the market, and also maybe what you’re devising in your head? Tell me about that. Tell me about your creative process.
Danielle O’Day 02:27
Yes, I would say it changes. Sometimes we have our core staple pieces, but they get flavor profile makeovers, aesthetic makeovers depending on different parts of the year. I really love, you’re gonna find me using the word whimsical very frequently in this interview, because that is something that is my starting line jump off point where, when I’m devising something creative and fun, that’s exactly what it should be. Of course, delicious as well, but I want things that people haven’t seen before or that you can’t find everywhere else, something that has your eyes wide and just “What is that? I have to try it. I have to see what that is.” So no matter what holiday it is, we’re always doing something fun. I also love to incorporate different theming. So for fall, we had a fall farmers market, and I turned the whole thing into this themed apple orchard, and then we put on a whole butter pop up event where it was about a month and a half of playing with butter and different mediums of butter, but the whole case was that beautiful butter yellow. Like I said, it’s an entire experience for me as well. It’s very immersive in the creative process. I’ll get my journal and I’ll just go to town and create as many things as I can. My problem is that there’s so much, and I need to just execute it correctly so my vision comes across.
Rosaria Cain 04:00
So it starts with journaling and creativity, and then you you back into the baking part from there? Tell me how that works. That’s a great process.
Danielle O’Day 04:11
Yeah. So I’ll sit several times a week I dedicate to the creative process. And that could include, you know, the theming, the pop ups, the pastries, social media, ideas, whatever it is. But I will sit with my journal and in front of me I have books that inspire me. I’ll have Pinterest up on my computer. I’ll have quotations that I’ve, you know, gathered throughout the week that get me in that really proper, almost meditation-like headspace for this creativity. Then I go to town in my notebook, and then the next couple of days, honing all of the different pieces that need to fall into place for the theming or event, whatever it is, I’ll go to the kitchen and I’ll start baking. I’ll start playing with the flavor profiles that I’ve come up with in my head to see if they match what I thought that they would taste like. I’ll go into Canva and begin putting all of the elements together, and then it takes, sometimes a couple weeks, if it’s a full on, pop up for a month. But it is one of the most gratifying things to see what you’ve written in this notebook turn into an entire experience.
Rosaria Cain 05:23
And that’s always your way
Danielle O’Day 05:26
Yeah, always, always, I have to have that dedicated in my apartment, in the one corner of my apartment that is my creative I can imagine how much energy is harnessed in that one corner, but it’s where I feel most authentic.
Rosaria Cain 05:43
And then it comes out in what people eat. But what’s your most outrageous creation? I mean, do you have, do you have? Maybe the top three. It might be hard to come up with one. But what are your most outrageous creations, different than what you would normally find in a French inspired bakery? Well, cactus, I would say, would be probably pretty—
Danielle O’Day 06:03
Same vein of the macarons.
Rosaria Cain 06:05
They’re not macaroons.
Danielle O’Day 06:07
Right? They’re macaron. Macaroon is the coconut haystack, dessert like a cookie. Macaron is the the French meringue, and they’re naturally folded in with almond flour and really beautiful flavors.
Rosaria Cain 06:19
Thank you so much for clarifying I had that all wrong.
Danielle O’Day 06:22
Anytime, yes, macaron, and you pipe them, so you have this beautiful batter, and you put it in a piping bag, and you pipe it, and that allows for the shape. You can pipe whatever shape you want. They’re traditionally just round, because it’s much easier for execution, and the bake gets a little bit more complicated if you’re dealing with shapes, but I turn them into French fry shapes. So then they’re sandwiched together, and they look like a little french fry. Then they’re put in a french fry holder, and it’s served with a cutest little ketchup bottle filled with pastry cream. So you dip the French fry in the pastry cream, and it’s so fun. I love interactive desserts. I know
Rosaria Cain 07:06
That sounds so good.
Danielle O’Day 07:09
It’s so fun. The another one that I do is make large sugar cookies, and then there is an edible image on top, and it comes with paint brushes and then edible paint swatch.
Rosaria Cain 07:24
Some of your your treats are actually interactive.
Danielle O’Day 07:28
Yeah, very much so.
Rosaria Cain 07:32
Wow.
Danielle O’Day 07:33
It’s fun. You can paint your coloring book masterpiece and then eat it.
Rosaria Cain 07:37
So do you do coloring?
Danielle O’Day 07:39
I’m actually not like a painter, doodler, artist, right? I I have many other creative mediums that I pursue daily.
Rosaria Cain 07:49
Tell me about those.
Danielle O’Day 07:51
I’m a writer. So I love to write. I have a background in fashion and Creative Writing prior to even entering my culinary experience. And then floral design also, and that’s the fun part about social media that you could post making a few floral arrangements, and all of a sudden I’m getting orders out of the back of the bakery to make centerpieces for an event.
Rosaria Cain 08:15
That’s amazing.
Danielle O’Day 08:16
It’s incredible.
Rosaria Cain 08:18
So, writing is your craft.
Danielle O’Day 08:21
Yes.
Rosaria Cain 08:21
Writing, fashion, that kind of gets you involved in culture, like social culture, pop culture.
Danielle O’Day 08:29
Yes.
Rosaria Cain 08:29
And then you turn it into things people can eat.
Danielle O’Day 08:34
And a space people can come together and enjoy those things too.
Rosaria Cain 08:38
That’s awesome.
Danielle O’Day 08:39
Yeah.
Rosaria Cain 08:39
You have all these different ingredients, and we talked about the things that were the most different from what you would normally find, whatever normal is, what you’d normally find in a French inspired bakery. Walk through a day in the life of you. I had originally the question was of a baker slash artist, but obviously that doesn’t actually fit you. You’ve evolved to something different.
Danielle O’Day 09:08
Yes, it’s funny. I love this question. And I was looking at my front doorstep the other day, and I had lined up, I had a very one of the more busy days, but lined up were all of the pairs of shoes I wore that day, and I admired it, because you have the work shoes that are covered in frosting, and then the gym shoes from the gym, and then the nice, cute little high heels that I got to wear for either a business meeting or an event, and then the slippers for when you’re home and you’re comfortable and I’m like, that is my day. So I usually wake up around 3:30 in the morning. Every single day.
Rosaria Cain 09:55
I wake up at 4:30, but that would be sleeping in for you.
Danielle O’Day 09:59
Yeah, I cherish 4:30 days, but I don’t start work until five. I think it’s imperative for me and my mental headspace that I have an entire hour just to myself to set intentions for the day, have the coffee, understand what I’m about to embark on, what journey, because anything can happen in one day. So I do all of that, and then I go into the bakery. We open. I have an incredible team that are beautiful and passionate. And we always have so much fun, especially in the morning, is that that’s when it starts. So you have the energy at five o’clock, everybody’s putting their heart and soul into all of these pastries. The case has to be set up by seven or eight, depending on the day, weekends are eight. And then you get that case set up. It’s running around like crazy for two and a half to three hours to make sure everything looks perfect. And then once that case is set up, I can finally exhale for the first time since 4:30/5 o’clock that day. And then I’ll sit with another cup of coffee I plan everybody else’s day. What the pastry chefs are doing. Make sure everybody in the front of house has what they need, knows what they need, knows that they can ask me if they need anything. I’ll do a little mantra for the team, whatever that is, an intention setting moment prior to opening our doors. And then at that point, I’ll either work on creating something new, a little bit of R and D (research and development) and or I’ll jump into custom orders. So at this time, I’m the only one doing custom cakes there. So sometimes I have 12 custom cakes going out that day. Sometimes there’s only two.
Rosaria Cain 11:39
Now I bet the custom cakes really take flight with your creativity and originality. How often do people not know what they want, and then you work with them to develop something incredibly specific to their goals, or maybe what they’re thinking, but they didn’t know they were thinking it?
Danielle O’Day 11:57
Yes, and that’s what I have come to realize with discussing with clients is that they’re not in this field. They can’t conceptualize what they want. They know that they want these elements. They’ve seen your work. They know that you’re capable. You have the reputation to make something look good. So yeah, I have gotten to a place in my career that I’m so grateful for, that 90% of my customers just say, “Here, do whatever you want. Surprise me with something fun.” And half the time they don’t even have an image they I’ll just ask them a few questions, and my favorite part is when they pick that up. But yes, that happens very frequently.
Rosaria Cain 12:38
Do they gasp when they see it? I mean, what’s the reaction?
Danielle O’Day 12:40
Usually, gasp. I love delivering, like the parents will come in with the little girls for a five year old birthday cake, let’s say. Their reactions. I wish I could just bottle them up.
Rosaria Cain 12:53
Oh, do you tape them? I mean, do you video?
Danielle O’Day 12:56
No, but I would never want to video, you know, somebody else’s. But that would be pretty cool. I could get permission.
Rosaria Cain 13:04
Well, you could get permission before they see it, yeah, because you don’t want to do it when they’re seeing it.
Danielle O’Day 13:09
It’s so cute.
Rosaria Cain 13:10
I think that would be just really cool. I’d love to see people’s reactions
Danielle O’Day 13:14
Even the 25 year old girlies on their bachelorette parties.
Rosaria Cain 13:17
Yeah
Danielle O’Day 13:17
They lose their minds.
Rosaria Cain 13:18
Right.
Danielle O’Day 13:19
And it’s so fast
Rosaria Cain 13:19
Because you can’t capture that with words.
Danielle O’Day 13:22
Right, exactly. And you know, it reminds me in that moment, I see what I see every single day I’m creating this every day it’s not novelty to me anymore, but to them it is. It’s the first time that they’re getting this sensory experience that we talked about. And there’s so much beauty in that. So to be able to look at my product from the eyes of someone else when I show them the cake is one of the coolest rewards.
Rosaria Cain 13:49
Well, give me an example or a couple of some of the most out there custom creations that you’ve developed that really surprised and delighted your people.
Danielle O’Day 14:03
I think that the most like well received sort of custom orders lie within the details.
Rosaria Cain 14:11
Yes.
Danielle O’Day 14:11
And the really small impactful such as one example is, I worked with a couple for their wedding cake, and I like to ask the story, you know, what is your story, how did you meet? Is there any little pieces of your story in my head that I’m researching? I’m doing a little digging to see if I can incorporate that on their wedding cake. And I don’t like to surprise people too much or too visually, because that’s their wedding day, right? They want a very specific thing of what their cake looks like, so I want to take chances with that. I’m not going to give them like a bright yellow cake, because that’s both of their shared favorite color. Like, we’re not in the business of that. But this one couple, they were a very big Disneyland couple. They got married or engaged at Disneyland. They would go to Disneyland once every couple months. They had annual passes. They had a lot of very significant moments in their relationship at Disneyland. So I put a hidden Mickey on the back of their wedding cake without them knowing, because they were the hit finding little hidden Mickeys was a big part of their relationship. So then the text I got from the bride was, like, You’re joking. That was the most special thing that like, when we only saw it when we go went to go cut the cake.
Rosaria Cain 15:28
There are hidden Mickeys?
Danielle O’Day 15:30
Yeah, all throughout Disneyland.
Rosaria Cain 15:31
You know what? I never knew that.
Danielle O’Day 15:32
Well, yeah, isn’t that amazing? It’s so fun. They hide them, and it’s essentially this, like, massive scavenger hunt with no prize, just the prize that you found them.
Rosaria Cain 15:43
It’s just the thrill of finding it.
Danielle O’Day 15:45
Thrill of finding it.
Rosaria Cain 15:46
And you had one on her cake
Danielle O’Day 15:47
And I put one on her cake. So while I’m not, I don’t have an answer for out-there crazy.
Rosaria Cain 15:52
Clever. very clever.
Danielle O’Day 15:53
I just like, I really enjoy that part of life.
Rosaria Cain 15:57
Almost intuitive.
Danielle O’Day 15:58
Yeah.
Rosaria Cain 15:58
So, you just kind of know.
Danielle O’Day 16:01
Yes, and you know, the clients that you can do that with.
Rosaria Cain 16:04
Right.
Danielle O’Day 16:04
Versus the ones that are—
Rosaria Cain 16:06
That are specific.
Danielle O’Day 16:06
Exactly, and I respect, I respect that way as well. But there’s the whimsy and it’s important that life has that.
Rosaria Cain 16:15
And that fits you.
Rosaria Cain 16:16
And that’s perfect.
Danielle O’Day 16:16
It does.
Danielle O’Day 16:17
Yes.
Rosaria Cain 16:18
So when did you decide, or how did it come about that you opened a bake shop? Now, you did this with your mother, correct?
Danielle O’Day 16:26
Yes.
Rosaria Cain 16:26
Lynda?
Danielle O’Day 16:27
With Lynda, yes.
Rosaria Cain 16:28
Tell me about how that happened.
Danielle O’Day 16:30
So I grew up with in a family business. Essentially, my dad was a landscape architect. My mom worked with him, and that’s kind of all I saw, that’s all I was around, was seeing my dad own his own business, and the throes of it, and simultaneously with the struggles of it.
Danielle O’Day 16:50
You know, and it I question 18 year old me, thinking that this would be fun, it should have scared me, but no, and I think that it didn’t scare me, because once I had this idea of a bakery, I mean, once I get fixated on something, there’s nothing that can stop me. And I navigated so that was formative years navigating that. And then I would play around, and I would go to college for creative writing, and then I went and studied fashion for a brief moment, all while working at a restaurant and learning all of the inner mechanics of what a restaurant entailed, not realizing I was falling in love with that aspect at that time, and I had A really phenomenal boss leader. She had this restaurant, and navigated so many different trials and tribulations with opening it, and her and I would just sit and have conversations. She even opened a boutique next door because she knew I wanted to go into fashion, and I managed it. So then I was at the boutique, I was at the restaurant, and then I started baking at home, because I just loved the aesthetic of pastry, and I thought it was so beautiful. I was so enamored by it. And then I would bring in stuff I baked to the restaurant. All of a sudden she was like, “We don’t have a pastry person. Do you want to design some desserts for the restaurant?” I was like, “Sure!” So then,
Rosaria Cain 16:51
I was going to say, it didn’t scare you?
Rosaria Cain 17:41
I bet they looked really good.
Danielle O’Day 17:47
They were so, yeah, they were beautiful. They were fun. So here I was managing a boutique. I was serving at a restaurant, making the desserts for it. This is 18/19, and then I said, I want to start a business out of my house that just does, like custom cakes. Because I was just playing around, I’d make friends birthday cakes, but it was never anything that I seriously considered as a career path that would get me up every day. Was making cakes and baked goods, until my dad got diagnosed with cancer, and it was a terminal cancer, pretty much right away it was a very, not a good situation. So I still had Sweet Dee’s out of the house while I was kind of navigating that. I was helping my mom take care of him, and there was this big looming question, since my dad was the breadwinner, and the head of the family business, is, what’s next after he passes? Where do we go? What do we do? And that’s more so for my mom, she was at a really pivotal point in her life. She really enjoyed working with him. And then all of these little puzzle pieces and feelers that I had out in the ether that I was soaking in just kind of fell into place. There’s this book by Elizabeth Gilbert called Big Magic.
Rosaria Cain 17:47
I’m familiar with Elizabeth Gilbert, and I think I’ve read portions of that book.
Danielle O’Day 17:47
Okay, it is phenomenal, and basically she discusses creative and these ideas that spontaneously pop into your head. As something that was, yes, always meant for you to run with, but if you don’t take that, harness it, and do something with it and grow it and nourish it, then it goes to somebody else. So take it, grasp it, digest it, and then run with it. And that’s truly what happened with the Bake Shop. It was, where do I go from here? I really love this. I really love this. I really love that. My mom would really enjoy this. She’s cooked forever. The family aspect of it. My brother helped us open it. It just made so much sense. So then I think it took me four days to come up with 100 page business plan.
Rosaria Cain 20:40
Oh, that’s the most grueling thing.
Danielle O’Day 20:42
It is not for the faint of heart.
Rosaria Cain 20:44
And it’s not fun to write. I mean, you might like writing, but writing a business plan?
Danielle O’Day 20:48
That’s not fun.
Rosaria Cain 20:48
Is not.
Danielle O’Day 20:49
It’s the antithesis of whimsical.
Rosaria Cain 20:51
It is. Oh, it is. And we don’t want to say boring stuff over and over and over.
Danielle O’Day 20:57
Like analytics of demographic saturation, I just… the words are boring!
Rosaria Cain 21:02
The marketing part’s more fun.
Danielle O’Day 21:03
The marketing part is fun, but finding out it’s just…
Rosaria Cain 21:07
Market facts.
Danielle O’Day 21:07
Yeah, I was, I was in DECA the business marketing club in high school, so I knew all of the terms. I knew how to write the business plan. I knew how to do all of those things. But it doesn’t hold a candle into actually executing such an impressive document. And of course, it wasn’t the most perfect thing I’ve ever written, but it was enough for my family to just say, “Yeah, let’s do that. Let’s figure that out.” So it was a, it started as like a seed, if you will, when my dad was still alive, so he knew, and he had solace in the fact that the family was going to be taken care of with a new journey and a new endeavor.
Rosaria Cain 21:49
And probably some of his ideas.
Danielle O’Day 21:51
Absolutely.
Rosaria Cain 21:52
I think that’s great. Yeah, so where did the food aspect? So for those who don’t know, while your your pastries and your amazing delights are delicious. You also serve some amazing food.
Danielle O’Day 22:07
So I’ve always cooked along with baking and the particular it never was going to have that cafe menu aspect to it. But when we were navigating finding a location, we just so happened that the perfect space was in an apartment complex, which is so fun, and I feel as though it would be doing such an extreme disservice to not offer some sandwiches or something fun. We’re also in the entertainment district of Scottsdale.
Rosaria Cain 22:40
You are.
Danielle O’Day 22:40
I feel like people would want to wake up on a Saturday or Sunday, to something really yummy,
Rosaria Cain 22:46
Like egg salad.
Danielle O’Day 22:48
Like egg salad.
Rosaria Cain 22:48
On a croissant.
Danielle O’Day 22:49
Oh, my God.
Rosaria Cain 22:51
I ate the whole thing now, just so the listeners now, I never eat a whole sandwich. Never. It’s part of my thing. I only eat half, and then I’ll keep it for, like, the next day. That’s generally how I roll.
Danielle O’Day 23:05
Yeah.
Rosaria Cain 23:06
I started eating this yesterday at my desk.
Danielle O’Day 23:10
And you’re like, game over.
Rosaria Cain 23:12
And I’m like, I can’t, I mean, I’m just gonna eat the whole thing because it’s, it was too good.
Danielle O’Day 23:17
Good.
Rosaria Cain 23:17
It was, it was such, and the croissant was so buttery crispy. And normally I don’t like buttery
Danielle O’Day 23:25
Yeah.
Rosaria Cain 23:26
On a croissant, it makes it too heavy.
Danielle O’Day 23:28
Yes.
Rosaria Cain 23:28
And so normally I’m not a croissant person, and I’m more of a hard roll, or I love a baguette. So normally I’m not a croissant person, because it’s just it you can taste too much butter. It tastes too fatty for me.
Danielle O’Day 23:41
The it’s oily too.
Rosaria Cain 23:43
Yeah. Exactly, exactly.
Danielle O’Day 23:44
Yeah.
Rosaria Cain 23:45
But for what ever reason, this was so crackly crispy, it wasn’t, it wasn’t heavy, it wasn’t buttery heavy.
Danielle O’Day 23:55
And I think that’s one of my favorite compliments, even with, like, some of our our gluten free customers, that they’ll come in and they’re like, I come to Sweet Dee’s for when I eat out, because I don’t feel heavy once I eat the food here.
Rosaria Cain 24:08
Yeah, I can see that.
Danielle O’Day 24:10
I could eat the croque madame with the most creamy Bechamel sauce on it, and my stomach doesn’t hurt.
Rosaria Cain 24:18
Right?
Danielle O’Day 24:19
And that’s on the the the extensive nature of…
Rosaria Cain 24:21
Well, you feel bad if you eat food like that, it just feels like there’s a lot of heft to what you’ve eaten.
Danielle O’Day 24:28
And that goes away with the whole point of the celebration aspect that I’m trying to do there.
Rosaria Cain 24:32
I totally get it.
Danielle O’Day 24:34
Yeah.
Rosaria Cain 24:34
I totally get it. And we were talking about this before, if you could make something as as mundane as egg salad, I love egg salad, but it’s pretty flat, it doesn’t have a lot of spice. It’s normally not what I would love to eat. But for some reason, egg salads the exception to that. With that croissant? And, okay, this is gonna sound weird.
Danielle O’Day 24:57
Yeah.
Rosaria Cain 24:57
Even the lettuce was good.
Danielle O’Day 24:59
Yes!
Rosaria Cain 24:59
Normally I would never, normally, I would say, no lettuce on egg salad, because it makes it watery.
Danielle O’Day 25:05
Yeah, but you have to have that, like, beautiful, specific crucnch.
Rosaria Cain 25:07
But I didn’t, for whatever reason.
Danielle O’Day 25:08
Wow.
Rosaria Cain 25:08
And the lettuce was amazing.
Danielle O’Day 25:13
Yeah.
Rosaria Cain 25:14
And it did have that crunch.
Danielle O’Day 25:15
Yeah.
Rosaria Cain 25:15
It did pull it together. And it was a great experience that makes something I wouldn’t have expected, you know,
Danielle O’Day 25:25
Right?
Rosaria Cain 25:25
Huge things.
Danielle O’Day 25:26
Yeah.
Rosaria Cain 25:26
I mean, I like an egg salad sandwich, but I wouldn’t have necessarily expected that.
Danielle O’Day 25:32
Yeah, and that goes back to pieces of like, if you’re going to do something, make sure everything is intentional and is done well.
Rosaria Cain 25:39
So when you were little, when did you… so you started with French inspired baking, or did you?
Danielle O’Day 25:47
I did not, well.
Rosaria Cain 25:49
How did you start? And how old were you?
Danielle O’Day 25:52
I was 15 or 16 when I was watching YouTube videos, and I came across a YouTube video of these pastry chefs. They all had the flower nails and frosting in their piping tips, and they were all piping roses out of buttercream. For some reason, I was like, I want to learn how to do that.
Rosaria Cain 26:17
How old did you say you were?
Danielle O’Day 26:19
I was like, 14 or 15. I don’t know why—
Rosaria Cain 26:23
I didn’t want to you didn’t want to go out and find some boys or
Danielle O’Day 26:27
No! I still don’t
Rosaria Cain 26:30
Go to the movies?
Danielle O’Day 26:32
I’m like, I want to work. I want to create. And those aspects of my life get to find me. But if it’s not creating something beautiful, I don’t want it in my life.
Rosaria Cain 26:45
I think that’s very sound and it’s healthy.
Danielle O’Day 26:49
Yes. So I learned how to make buttercream, first and foremost, I learned that a lot of recipes required Crisco and vegetable shortening, and I threw that away very quickly.
Rosaria Cain 26:59
That doesn’t sound good.
Danielle O’Day 27:00
No.
Rosaria Cain 27:01
It might look good.
Danielle O’Day 27:02
It doesn’t.
Rosaria Cain 27:03
Did you just keep making them?
Rosaria Cain 27:03
Oh, it doesn’t.
Danielle O’Day 27:03
No, the whole thing. I was just like, okay, so I did a lot of trial and error with the frosting to start with, and then I got the perfect consistency. And then I started piping these roses. My parents woke up the next day in our kitchen, and I think there was, like, over 350 roses covering the entirety of our kitchen.
Danielle O’Day 27:06
Yeah, I just kept making them until they were perfect. But I wanted, I didn’t want to trash the buttercream and keep reusing it, because I wanted to see what my progression looked like.
Rosaria Cain 27:31
And you were 14, had a test kitchen, and your mom was okay with the the rose patterned test kitchen?
Danielle O’Day 27:40
She was like, “What’s going on here?” But I’ve always been like that since I was a kid. So many things lit me up. And my parents were like, Okay, go for it. You want to you want to be in contemporary dance at the studio? Sure. You want to now pursue acting? Okay, go ahead. She’ll tire herself out if she doesn’t like it, and find something new.
Rosaria Cain 28:12
So did your parents just think it was another one of those things?
Danielle O’Day 28:15
Yeah, they did.
Rosaria Cain 28:15
And here you are years later.
Danielle O’Day 28:15
I know. my mom and I laugh about when I was probably, like, six or seven, I asked for an easy bake oven.
Rosaria Cain 28:20
Oh, I remember those!
Danielle O’Day 28:21
Yeah. She was like, no, if you want to bake something, you can bake it in the big oven. I’ll do it with you. Like, no, I want the Easy Bake Oven.
Rosaria Cain 28:30
They look so cute.
Danielle O’Day 28:31
They look so cute.
Rosaria Cain 28:32
And they look so good on TV.
Danielle O’Day 28:34
She’s like, you’re not baking with a light bulb, and you’re not going to eat that preservative stuff in the pouch. And that’s our funny joke. Now you wouldn’t give me the Easy Bake Oven, mom, and look at me now.
Rosaria Cain 28:45
Tthere you go, and probably, in spite of that, or maybe because of it.
Danielle O’Day 28:49
Definitely a brick in the in the wall.
Rosaria Cain 28:51
Yeah, that’s great.
Danielle O’Day 28:52
Yes.
Rosaria Cain 28:53
Awesome.
Danielle O’Day 28:53
Yeah.
Rosaria Cain 28:54
How did you evolve from there, and then, of course, we know how you ended up starting your business. But how did your pastries evolve from there into a full blown business?
Danielle O’Day 29:10
So we have buttercream roses. And I was like, well, these were fun to make. What am I gonna put them on? I have to start figuring out.
Rosaria Cain 29:20
Oh yeah, the baked part.
Danielle O’Day 29:21
The baked part.
Rosaria Cain 29:22
Yep. What’s in a what’s in these roses, by the way? So you didn’t use Crisco.
Danielle O’Day 29:27
No, it’s all butter.
Rosaria Cain 29:28
Okay.
Danielle O’Day 29:28
All butter, and there’s different types of buttercream. So you have, like, a Swiss meringue. The American buttercream is mostly just butter, powdered sugar. It’s, yeah, easy. You fluff it up into this beautiful frosting. You can do ganache, you can do chocolate, but I didn’t know that at that time. Now, at that point, I was just using butter, and then I started baking cakes. And then, you know, I love how supportive friends and family are. You tell a few people, “I think I want to bake some cakes,” “Well, I’ve got a birthday coming up,” “I would love to make your birthday cake.” You make the birthday cake, it’s fine, but I liked it, so then I just kind of played around with different recipes. Martha Stewart was huge for me. Every recipe I tried. Of hers was always on point and amazing. So I would spend hours on the Martha Stewart website saying, like, Oh, that looks fun to bake. That looks fun to bake. So then from the roses, I definitely entered more of a baking journey. And then once I created bakes that were delicious, I was kind of like left with, “Why aren’t people making them look cooler?”
Rosaria Cain 30:36
That’s true.
Danielle O’Day 30:36
The grocery store is, like my favorite place in the world. And I would see edible flowers.
Rosaria Cain 30:45
Not their bakery section.
Danielle O’Day 30:48
No, and also these natural capable like dried oranges or zest or freeze dried raspberries and strawberries. You have edible rose petals. I mean, there were so many different mediums that people are just not using, and it’s not without access. We can get anything at our fingertips now, even then. And so then, that’s when I just really started transforming the way that they looked. And my parents, they loved me and everything that I did, but they were very honest and real people. So when they told me, this is quite literally unlike anything I’ve ever seen before, you knew that they meant it, which I appreciate.
Rosaria Cain 31:28
Was that a positive?
Danielle O’Day 31:29
Yes, oh, yeah, oh my gosh. Could you imagine they’re like, What is this?
Rosaria Cain 31:34
When you said they were honest?
Danielle O’Day 31:36
Yeah, no.
Rosaria Cain 31:37
I didn’t know what was gonna come next?
Danielle O’Day 31:38
That means that they were like, “Wow, we think that you’ve got a lot of talent.” And then, yeah, I started looking into blogging, and then I started writing. So it was kind of simultaneous when I was going to school with creative writing, that I would write, and then I would have all these, I called them, like nibbles and scribbles. So then I had all these like things that you could eat, and then some pieces of little sentiments that went along with it. But that’s I did that for a while. Then my mom got all these food allergies, and then I got really good with baking gluten-free.
Rosaria Cain 32:13
I saw you do things like gluten free.
Danielle O’Day 32:15
Yeah.
Rosaria Cain 32:16
Dairy free.
Danielle O’Day 32:17
Vegan.
Rosaria Cain 32:18
Vegan.
Danielle O’Day 32:19
So, I really doubled down.
Rosaria Cain 32:23
I bet the French don’t like vegan.
Danielle O’Day 32:25
I think they would like my vegan.
Rosaria Cain 32:28
Well, that’s saying something really big.
Danielle O’Day 32:32
So, I’m baking all of these things that is really fun. And my mom has all these food allergies come up, and she was, like, her birthday was also coming up. She really wanted a, I actually remember the flavor perfectly. She wanted a chocolate cake with coconut, caramel, almost like a Samoa Girl Scout cookie. She was, like, really craving that profile.
Danielle O’Day 32:55
And I wanted to make her something special. But she had this, like, lengthy think she was gluten free, dairy free, as refined sugar free as I possibly could, grain free. I mean, all of these things.
Rosaria Cain 32:55
That’s a lot.
Rosaria Cain 32:55
Oh, that sounds good.
Danielle O’Day 33:04
And then that’s when I really went down the rabbit hole, and I got really good at baking gluten free.
Rosaria Cain 33:16
Did you have to do a lot of research?
Danielle O’Day 33:17
So much research, yeah, so much research, and I love this now that what I’m doing with, what I’m doing every day with research, and I learned about so many different types of flours that existed and their functions when they were appropriate to add that now even conventional baking, I know that I can Add a different depth to my all purpose flour cupcake by adding different flours that I got the chance to research back when I was 19.
Rosaria Cain 33:49
You put it to good use.
Danielle O’Day 33:50
Yes, I did, and then, yeah, honestly, it kind of almost feels like a blur, because I just if I saw something online or in my everyday passing, I learned how to make it. So the next couple of years, prior to the Bakeshop, the brick and mortar opening, I just wanted to, if I saw something I wanted to do, I would do it until it was perfect, and then that’s kind of the staple of what’s on our menu now is things that I did until they were perfect,
Rosaria Cain 34:20
And now people that have conditions, gluten free, and dairy free, and prefer vegan, can come into your place and have something that tastes really good.
Danielle O’Day 34:29
Yes.
Rosaria Cain 34:30
Does this taste good for someone that doesn’t have those conditions?
Danielle O’Day 34:33
I’ve been told by a lot of people,
Rosaria Cain 34:35
For those that have families, that may want to share something.
Danielle O’Day 34:38
The gluten free cake that I make is an almond flour base, and it has been proven that almost nine to one would rather eat that than a normal cake.
Rosaria Cain 34:49
Really?
Danielle O’Day 34:50
Yeah.
Rosaria Cain 34:50
Wow, that’s crazy.
Danielle O’Day 34:51
It’s very, very, very well received.
Rosaria Cain 34:54
Because my daughter, was once diagnosed with celiac, oh, and she grew out of it with. Was really unusual. She was two when she was diagnosed with it so, but by the time she was 10, she was sneaking all sorts of things she shouldn’t have been eating, and she was fine.
Danielle O’Day 35:04
She cured herself.
Rosaria Cain 35:12
Whatever happened I’m grateful for.
Danielle O’Day 35:14
Yeah.
Rosaria Cain 35:15
But finding things she could eat was challenging. I had to call places and ask them to verify what was in their modified food starch. I swear to God.
Danielle O’Day 35:26
Yes
Rosaria Cain 35:26
That’s in everything.
Danielle O’Day 35:27
It’s amazing what’s in everything, or like, even little tiny things like our Bechamel sauce on our breakfast menu, we offer gluten-free bagels as a substitute. But it’s so easy for restaurants to make that sauce gluten-free, so it could be on everything, and it’s just the little swaps that make your menu a lot more open for everybody to be able to enjoy.
Rosaria Cain 35:50
Very inclusive.
Danielle O’Day 35:51
Yeah.
Rosaria Cain 35:52
I think that sounds great, yeah, because boy, cookies and cakes were really awful back then.
Danielle O’Day 35:57
They were so bad.
Rosaria Cain 35:58
You could only buy them at Trader Joe’s. You’ll never forget it, and it was not good.
Danielle O’Day 35:58
Trader Joe’s has great gluten-free alternatives.
Rosaria Cain 36:05
Not in 1995, 1997.
Danielle O’Day 36:09
Yeah.
Rosaria Cain 36:09
They were not good.
Danielle O’Day 36:10
No.
Rosaria Cain 36:11
Yeah, but what are you gonna do? See, and now you have the solution for everybody, yeah, let’s talk about being a founder a little bit.
Rosaria Cain 36:18
Y=ou’re a founder. You’ve been a founder for six years.
Rosaria Cain 36:18
Okay.
Danielle O’Day 36:24
Brick and mortar is eight years old. Okay? I started the LLC When I Was 19…12 years ago.
Rosaria Cain 36:31
Oh, so longer than I thought. Okay, what do you think makes a good founder? And are people crazy to want to become one?It’s a lot.
Danielle O’Day 36:40
It is. It is a lot. I think I was dealing with this question in my head, and I think that what makes a really good founder is being able to, especially if you’re going to be a founder that is going to have employees, to have a really strong sense of self and know what that is, and know how to show up for yourself. So in turn, and inherently, you’re showing up for them, and then they show up for you. And I think that that’s the beauty in all of those aspects about being an employer and head of something, in that aspect of a foundership. The other aspect, which still requires such a strong sense of self, is the ability to harness the creativity, adaptability to anything, knowing how to and working the muscle of not reacting, because that could be, you know, someone’s, you’re, I mean, you’re your own worst enemy. If you’re a founder of something, what’s you’re essentially putting what you’ve created in your head into something tangible, and if there’s chaos in your head, there’s going to be chaos in front of you. And I think that’s the beauty in working and navigating through this in my 20s, because I was growing up with it. And I get to—
Rosaria Cain 38:04
And you saw your dad, you had an example in your life.
Danielle O’Day 38:07
Yeah. He had such a genius when it came to his creativity, but he had such a chaos when it came to the execution of it. And I also got to him, and I had so many conversations about that, and he would, he would teach me, but I would also teach him. That’s important to also surround yourself with people that are teaching you, and be open to the fact that somebody can teach you something every day, even if it’s just a specific little instance that in your head, take you take pause, and you learn something about yourself and how you reacted to it. Or, in my terms, you don’t react to it, you take it, you observe it, you make a decision on what you’re going to do about it, and then you move on. And that has taken eight years to figure out how to do.
Rosaria Cain 38:52
That is really, really great advice. Tell me, do you feel the presence of your dad in your life still?
Danielle O’Day 39:00
All the time.
Rosaria Cain 39:00
Do you feel it?
Danielle O’Day 39:01
Yeah, yeah. He is very, very influential for me, even to this day.
Rosaria Cain 39:08
Well, that shows through. It shows through the entire interview. And I thought it was something that really seemed like it shaped you
Danielle O’Day 39:15
Yeah.
Rosaria Cain 39:15
Okay, so you’ve had some pretty big milestones along the way, what’s next for you? So expansion or expanding your menu, or maybe starting another, God help us all, starting another business. I mean, I say that with like, oh my gosh, that would be not impossible, selling and doing something completely different. What do you see yourself doing in five years? 10 years?
Danielle O’Day 39:43
Okay, well, we laugh. I already have several other business ventures that I’m currently working on.
Rosaria Cain 39:52
I want to hear about this.
Danielle O’Day 39:55
Some of them are like, wrapped up and in the in the infancy stage. But one is dealing with recently, around Christmas time, my hands are not what they used to be with the 16 hour days. I’ve been piping and realizing that the past eight years of I’ve really learned how to relinquish control and really start using my mind instead of my actual physical hands to create product. So one of the business ventures is navigating that, and what that looks like, and different pieces of my head that I can potentially capitalize off of. Different journeys of writing. I started a magazine with Sweet Dee’s. It’s always one thing that I think is very important for me. It’s never just been a bakery. There is always so much more, in my opinion, that could be added to a conversation where that could have just been the beginning of so many different holes or streets that I could go down with, like the magazine that I came out with had recipes, it had writing, it put together a full circle moment of everything I ever went and studied and everything that I’m passionate about, and it’s lifestyle, it’s an inspiration, it’s pieces that I’ve curated that have made me who I am today in a seasonal fun issue. So then there’s social media that’s super fun, that I love, and could pursue that in short five to 10 years, I think Sweet Dee’s Bakeshop will always exist. That is the beautiful umbrella to all of the different things that would reside underneath it, and that is what led me to wherever I’m going.
Rosaria Cain 41:48
With all of these talents you have, what is your superpower? That was a question wasn’t on the list, but I just have to ask.
Danielle O’Day 41:55
I love that question. I can create my way into anything and out of anything.
Rosaria Cain 42:03
Hmm, they should make a movie about that. Wouldn’t that be great starring you?
Danielle O’Day 42:10
Yes, but of course.
Rosaria Cain 42:12
Rolling pin in one hand and…
Danielle O’Day 42:15
the whole world in the other! Exactly. Yeah.
Rosaria Cain 42:18
Well, this has been a great conversation. I appreciated that you shared so much with me today, and thank you for coming in.
Danielle O’Day 42:26
Thank you so much. I love being here.
Rosaria Cain 42:28
Great. Thanks.
Danielle O’Day 42:29
Thank you.